 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: stan shipley
Date: 2002-07-15 20:40
I have often read about a clarinet being ' stuffy '. Can
any one explain to a beginner what that means technically
in terms of tonal quality ...........thank you
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Author: Bob Arney
Date: 2002-07-15 21:23
Stan, I'm glad you asked that question as it is one I have always wondered about. No technical expert I have always considered it to be a more subjective issue, what it means to each person is surely going to be different. For me it is like going through the break, with certain reeds and different mouthpieces when it sounds like your clarinet is struggling to produce the sound. It's as if it has a head-cold and the note is mushy as if it were strained through a ball of cotton. Usually limited to one or two notes and sometimes due to a leak so minor it will take you a month to find it. All I did here was undoubtedly help confuse you--sorry 'bout dat!
Bob A
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Author: ron b
Date: 2002-07-15 22:21
The horn isn't 'breathing' well, Stan. Somewhat akin to a car with a dirty air filter. Install a new clean filter and it purrs like a kitten again
My understanding of a 'stuffy horn' is that some notes sound muffled, anywhere from mild (annoying) to severe (really hard to blow). Could be gunk in the toneholes - usually pretty obvious by visual inspection. More likely though, there's not enough clearance between the pad and its seat when the pad is raised all the way (opened). The pad just doesn't open up far enough for it to 'breathe'. A minor leak can have somewhat the same effect on one or two lower notes but more often will cause a squeak. The remedy is to ask your technician to check it out to see if any pads need replacement and then adjust (regulate) the instrument for you.
During normal use, pads and corks wear and keys, pivots and things can shift or bend slightly putting things out of alignment/adjustment - often just enough that you find yourself working harder and harder to get a 'clean', free blowing sound. Your tech can address the pivots etc. if need be. You probably first begin to notice stuffiness when you try to play pianissimo and it just won't co-operate. After that it gets progressively balkier until you get so tired of fighting it you drag it to the shop for a checkup.
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Author: Bob
Date: 2002-07-16 14:18
For me it's as if the horn was lightly stuffed with cotton balls...i.e. takes too much force to get any sound...and it's still not clear or "liquid"....
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2002-07-16 14:22
This is one of those things you'll recognize immediately when you find it. The clarinet just doesn't blow right. Sometimes a change in barrel will cure it.
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Author: Bob
Date: 2002-07-16 14:25
Sorry, but must add that just last night I put on a reed I had been preparing for awhile and was getting a stuffy sound. On inspection I discovered that it had a longitutinal crack(actually absence of a sliver of material) about an eighth of an inch long over to one side. Don't know if the crack caused the problem but I scrapped the reed...and then noticed that the next reed I tried had the same type of defect. No, they weren't VDs. I must admit that I don't recall encountering this type of reed defect previously....maybe I'm just lucky.
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